Teach Preschool » motor skills

Everyday fine motor play in preschool and a linky

Deborah J. Stewart, M.Ed. — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 11:00:58 +0000

This week’s Bam Radio show is titled, “Fine Motor Skills: What Are They, Why Are They Too Important to Overlook?” and before you go any further, take a minute to listen to what the experts have to say! You can view the show and listen here or here!

Rae Pica with Dr. Christy Isbell, Allison Sampish, Deborah J. Stewart, M.Ed.

“The development of fine motor skills are often a casualty of the rush to get young children up to academic speed. In this segment our guests explain why fine motor skills are a critical building block for higher learning and should never be overlooked” (Bam Radio)

Promoting fine motor skills

I am always exploring new ways I can promote the use of fine motor skills into my classroom….

I may set out something like picking up and sorting pom-poms with tweezers or chopsticks into colorful bags….

Whether the children use my homemade straw tweezers or they use their hands to pick up, manipulate, and move the pompoms – they are using their fine motor skills in the process…

Promoting the use of fine motor skills is an important part of preparing young children to write, catch and throw a ball, type on a computer, open a door, and the list goes on. As young children develop the muscles in their hands, they develop the strength they need to complete fine motor processes that will play a valuable part in higher level learning…

Often times, I will see teachers or parents who will insist on a child holding a pencil using the “correct pencil holding form” but the reality is, young children are still developing the muscles they need in their hands and fingers to hold a pencil correctly. Thus, young children will start off holding a pencil or crayon in a way that looks awkward or incorrect but given time and good opportunities to build fine motor strength and skills, most children will self-correct on their pencil grip when their fine motor control and strength gets to the point that they can manage the pencil with the correct grip…

There are lots of ways to promote fine motor skills and help children build fine motor strength including cutting with scissors…

Squeezing, manipulating, pinching, and rolling playdough….

Weaving, lacing, and sewing…

Peeling and sticking stickers…

Scooping, pouring, mixing and the list goes on…

There are opportunities all throughout the preschool classroom to promote fine motor development!

Homemade Tweezers

I made 2 different versions of homemade tweezers from straws. This isn’t a perfect solution to real tweezers but it does provide a new experience for preschoolers to try out. The straws I used were very nice and sturdy from Meijer…

Version 1: Cut one long straw in half. Hot glue a skinnier piece of straw inside the end of each bigger straw.

Version 2: Bend the straw in half - add tape to hold

Straws, tape

If you have a fun idea that promotes fine motor skills in young children, I invite you to add your idea to the linky below! Adding a link back from your article to this article would be greatly appreciated.

Links to Grow on…

Pencil Grasp Development by OT Mom

Kindergarten Hand Exercises by OT MOM

Handwriting: Pre-K Pages

Fine Motor Development by School Sparks

30 Kids Activities and Materials for Promoting Fine Motor Skills from Hands on: as we grow

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Try the frog leap in preschool

Deborah J. Stewart, M.Ed. — Thu, 19 May 2011 03:47:33 +0000

In preschool, the frog leap is just a bit different than the old fashioned leap frog game where you jump over another person’s back…

In this classroom, the teacher laminated some lili-pads on the floor for her little frogs to leap across. We have the two-footed leap…

The split leap..

The full-body leap (sorry for a blurry photo – he was leaping kind of fast:) …

And the partner leap…

Another simple way to create some imaginative play and to promote some large motor control…

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Developing large motor skills by playing on the line in preschool

Deborah J. Stewart, M.Ed. — Wed, 04 May 2011 12:00:56 +0000

Tape is such a wonderful thing to keep handy in preschool. In the latest conference I attended, the Ooey Jump In Jump OutGooey lady said you should keep a roll of painter’s tape on your wrist at all times! I am inclined to agree…

Using some green painter’s tape, I made a large square on the floor so we could practice for our up and coming school musical. The children found other uses for the tape during their free play time as well…

Some of the children decided to roll their balls down the tape line…

Others thought it might be fun to dribble their balls around the square…

Then the children decided to use their feet to push the balls around the square…

We also played some games as a large group…

Like follow the leader and jumping in and out of the square….

For our jumping in and out of the square, I had all the children stand just outside the edges of the square. Then as I sang the following song, the children jumped over the line and into the middle of the square then back out again. I actually learned this song in church as a little girl but I have changed the words to work for me at preschool. It goes like this…

Jump in

Jump out

And then you turn about!

Jump in

Jump out

And then you turn about!

Stretch your arms up high and reach up to the sky……. Then…..

Jump in

Jump out

And then you turn about!

Now change the word “jump” to “step, crawl, march, hop, and twirl”.

Click the link below to listen to Deborah Sing the Tune…

Jump In Jump Out

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A bundle of fun with these crayons in preschool

Deborah J. Stewart, M.Ed. — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 15:00:37 +0000

Our students love to color so we thought during our color review week, we would mix it up a little and let them try coloring with crayon bundles….

In almost every case, the children began by making the crayons go round and round on their paper…

Trying to get all the crayons to touch the paper at the same time was an interesting challenge. The children had to learn how to tap the crayons on the ends until they were all level…

Some of the older children began to make other shapes…

This child really didn’t see the point in keeping the crayons together so she took all the rubber bands off so she could make a picture of her family…

Others enjoyed exploring this interesting and different way of creating with crayons…

Usually by the end of each day, all the rubber bands were removed from the crayons – LOL!

Check out these crayon activities and crafts too…

Crayon Painting from Quirky Momma

Abstract Crayon Art by Crafty-Crafted

Edible Crayons by Gourmet Mom on-the-Go

Wax Crayon Pictures from NurtureStore

Crayon Box from Be Different Act Normal

Crayons on Trucks from When You Never Expect Two

Melted Crayon Drawings from Irresistible Ideas for Play Based Learning

Broken Crayon Monogram Art from Dollar Store Crafts

Melted Crayon Paper Weights or Melted Crayon Pottery from The Honorable Mention Preschool Blog

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Y is for yarn in preschool

Deborah J. Stewart, M.Ed. — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 15:54:32 +0000

Preschoolers are unpredictable when it comes to what they will find interesting and how they will play with the different items we put in the activity boxes. I found this adorable idea of making yarn designs on sandpaper by Polwig and decided to turn this idea into one of our activity boxes…

We placed sandpaper and yarn in the box with the idea that the children would make yarn designs and pictures on the sandpaper. Out of all the classes I observed, this twos class seemed to enjoy the yarn the most. They didn’t care for the sandpaper but they loved playing with the strips of colorful yarn…

The teacher took the time to demonstrate how she can make different shapes on the table with yarn then let the children just have at it. This little boy spent the entire time making one circle after another. He would stretch the yarn out straight then make the two ends meet. He was very specific in his play – it was delightful to observe him as he focused intently on making his designs…

This little one is a very young two year old and he liked taking the yarn off the table and stretching each length of yarn across the top of a nearby bookshelf…

Every time he would turn around to go get another length of yarn, he would accidentally knock the other yarn pieces off the shelf that he just stretched out. He was so patient as he continued to put them all back up in long straight rows…

Some of the two year olds preferred to roll their yarn up like spaghetti with a fork…

Who knew that lengths of yarn could lead to the development of so many different skills…

In the two year old classrooms, our teachers are always modeling play. They don’t tell the children what they have to do but instead they model different kinds of play then give the children time to explore in their own way. Even the teachers wouldn’t have thought of making lines on the bookshelf but by modeling a few ideas, the twos are inspired to give something like this a try in their own way…

Other activities with yarn…

Toddlers can Sew by Tinkerlab

String Painting by Rhyme Time

Yarn Collages by Teacher Tom

Yarn Color Wheels by We Folk Art

String Printing by The Imagination Tree

Heart Strings by Kids Can make

String Pull Painting by Time for Play

Yarn Lacing by No Time for Flashcards

Yarn Butterflies by GummyLump

Follow the Rainbow by Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds

Rainbow Yarn Art by My HomeMade Montessori

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